What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Citations

Cite your sources. That is my first nugget of advice in this installment of Writing Historical Fiction. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you’re going to quote, directly or indirectly, you must provide information about the source from which you got that quote/information. If you fail to do so, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is a very serious issue, of which, it has more recently come to my attention, younger writers seem to be ignorant. I’m not calling them stupid, not by any means. The information, for some reason or another, has not been provided to them.

Citing sources in foot/endnotes was a loose part of my coursework through high school. It wasn’t all that hammered in by my undergraduate professors either. Amazing! You see, so this is why a lot of people have no idea what they’re doing as far as citing sources in a publication. Whether it is journal, blog, newspaper, book or whatever publication, you must always cite sources. As an author, I took it upon myself to pay attention to the warnings that I had received. They served me well, but I can see how the lack of emphasis upon citations has affected many in their careers and education goals. Several times a year students all across the country are brought up on plagiarism charges. Most are copying work from other students or downloading documents online. Some have no clue this is wrong, most don’t care because they want to skirt the work.

When I did research for any of my coursework and books, I took notes in a separate word document. The header of each section was the bibliographic citation of the work in which I was taking notes, followed by quoted snippets and page numbers. Each source was handled in this manner, keeping everything nice and neat.

How did I do the bibliographic citations? Remember my entry on Libraries (17)? I spoke briefly about using Flow. There are a number or services available to you online. They do cost, but they’re worth the cost, as they help keep you from getting sued later for plagiarism. Some software may be available for download, so you don’t have to remember another sign on. I recommend shopping around and finding a product that suits your need. Do you need just a bibliography tracker? Perhaps you would like one that manages your notes as well. There are choices that can provide you with all of that.

So you have your bibliography manager. Did you know that in most cases you can open up a book’s page online and press a button to include it like the snap of a finger into your bibliography? No fuss, no muss. It’s a great feature offered by Flow. Then you can export your list to a word document and use each listing, as I mentioned above, as a header for your notes. Your reading might be slowed by taking notes while you read, but I found it helped reinforce the information. If you are more comfortable with flagging the page, or dog-earing the corner and highlighting, that is cool too. You might be using a kindle, and you can make notes right on the kindle and export those out.

So, you might be wondering, what do I need to cite? Any direct quotes will require a citation note. Those are the ones you find in quotations marks, just to be clear. Simply copying and pasting a line without quotes will not remove the need to cite that source. That is exactly what plagiarism is. You cannot do this and, unfortunately, many students make the mistake. They also believe that if you change a couple words via thesaurus, that it’s altering the sentence enough to make it their own. That is also untrue. You would still need to cite it with a note.

When you completely overhaul an idea into all new words to explain it, I often cite these as well, because the idea is something that you took from someone else. Plagiarism is a very serious issue in writing and an author should do all they can to avoid committing such a faux pas. The act is considered a crime and will impact your integrity for the rest of your career. It is so serious that almost all professors check your paper against a database to be sure you’re not stealing, regardless of who you are. You will get caught. So, when in doubt, cite it out. Though this might lead to an extensive amount of notes, you can’t be accused of stealing. If you feel your paper is suffering from too many notes, that is considered lazy writing in academics. It’s okay if you’re looking at an early draft. You’re still working on your ideas, and a cluster of notes can show you where you need to work more. It is not worth your degree or career to plagiarize.

If you have further questions on citing your sources, check out Plagiarism.org’s section on citing. They can give you an expert rundown of all that you’ll need to do to avoid the mistake.

Stay tuned as I explore looking for grants for writing in an upcoming edition.

Please refer to the following works regarding citations and bibliography:

What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Beat Feet On The Street

Nothing can beat getting out there and actually looking, first hand, at the things you are planning to write about. The age doesn’t matter. There are literally artifacts and places all over the world where you can touch time. Do you have a specific setting for your 18th century novel? Go visit the city in which you plan to place that tale.

Why would you go to all that trouble? Aren’t things pretty much built over and gone? In a lot of cases, yeah. The stuff you’re looking for may not be there anymore. But do you know what is? Many streets remain in the same pattern and have the same names as years ago, but you can’t be sure unless you reach out for historical city plans from the city itself. You can give the town clerk/city clerk’s office a call to see what you need to do to gain access to those records. Telephoning appropriate businesses and services is beating feet on the street.

I know, I know, but you’re an introvert. I am too. The cold truth is that you need to overcome that or allow your writing to suffer. When I looked into Boston between the 1930s and 1940s, I got in touch with the Jamaica Plain Historical Society, and I spoke with natives who knew the city well. There’s only one thing better than finding a photograph in the same period, and that’s standing on the spot.

Nothing can give you perspective like standing in the place where your particular episode of history took place. Just think what insight it would give to stand on Cemetery Hill instead of reading about it from documentary? Second hand information is no replacement for the first hand.

How can you make it work? There are a few steps you can make to plan your research trip. Contact a few university professors or experts on the topic and see if you can get their recommendation for where you should go, what you need to NOT miss and if there were any difficulties they faced as far as access. Don’t worry if they don’t respond, because they’re pretty busy with their students and free advice is at a premium these days. Your next step, check out your friend’s list and see if anyone on it lives in the region. Post the question to Facebook or Twitter, or whatever social media you use. Check out travel sites that might talk about the location. Lots of people leave feedback on those sites that can be quite helpful. Have you thought about searching through Flickr. or Instagram? If you locate an image of the place, you could reach out to the person who snapped it. After that, check with the city/town chamber of commerce/visitor information. They can help get you in touch with the information you need, including local historians who will be enthusiastic to talk about their slice of history.

Once you have your plans set out, don’t book that trip yet! Have you thought about grants for travel? They can cover research costs like travel and supplies. I’ll talk about doing this in a future installment. But, keep that in mind. This is the point you need to start making moves about applying for grants, because you’ll need to write a proposal which includes your itinerary.

Skipping ahead, let’s say you nailed that grant, or you have funds and no barriers. You’re on your way! Make sure you set appointments with the people you’re going to meet and the businesses you plant to utilize. Reach out not just to the city but also the library and any local universities and colleges to see if you can find people and resources there. Book a tour. I know it sounds chintzy, but tours can give you a good starting point sort of like a live Wikipedia page. This is especially useful if you know nothing about the topic but the basics, but can also be useful to those with more information. Tours allow people into places that the general public cannot go. That’s the pull of a tour. The exclusiveness is part of the deal.

If you do a tour, use that time wisely. Verify that you can take pictures—and then take a lot of pictures. If the place you’re going is far away, you won’t be getting back there any time soon, or if you forgot something and need to double check. Pictures are great for reminding us of the moment. Also, check with the tour guide and/or business to see if there is anything else you can get out of your time there, like more information. Be reasonable. You’re not entitled to anything. Graciousness will get you further than ego filled attitude, so don’t be that writer muscling them into allowing you behind the scenes. Always ask politely and nudge only delicately.

Other Tips: Researching on a budget, look for Groupons and other deals to the locations you’re looking to review. Go to the areas frequented by locals (get off the beaten path—carefully!). Get them talking about their memories. You’d be surprised the things you learn. This also introduces you to their culture, and each location has one. On the plus side, you might even find someone who knows someone who can get you into a historical place, or share information you had no access to before.

Happy researching!

Have a topic you’d like discussed on writing historical fiction? Leave me a message and I will do my best to get to it.

What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Libraries

It’s the honest truth. Libraries are still the go to resource for finding materials to back up your writing. You cannot do all your research online. There simply is too much information that is unregulated floating around out there. Remember the previous post with the video about the internet? Good.

Part of being a historical fiction writer is going to a library–or, if you have the resources to invest, you can build your own. If you’re lucky enough to live in a town that has a decent university library, then you’re all set and can save yourself a lot of cash. Go get that library card. Most universities will allow locals access to their library. You can call ahead to be sure.

Another feature that is available is online libraries and mail lending. Have you met Open Library? Before you again attempt to rely on this limited resource, the best thing you can do is get a real library card and go to a real library. Any professor or other professional researcher will agree. If you’re here to learn tips for cutting corners, then your work will reflect corner cutting. You simply will have to accept the fact that beating feet on the street is still the best method available to you. Certainly, you can borrow a book and bring it home for several days, make copies of important pages and take extensive notes.

The reason I emphasize going to the library and spending some time is that you can quickly vet books by looking at the fly leafs, and then looking for the information you seek inside of them. They may be perfectly legitimate resources, but have little to no information on the specifics you seek. You can’t do that online. Online articles are usually only an introduction to the topic. My advice for anyone writing historical fiction: Over Learn Your Topic. Learn everything about it, even if it’s a side issue. Why? because when you go to write, you will be a confident expert on your topic and it will show! Besides, you’d be surprised what nuggets of information you can find in a book that may seem slightly off topic from where you were digging. I’ve had this happen numerous times and now expect to add these sidebars into my research as regular work. You should too. You can never learn too much about that which you write. Why? do you remember the old adage: write what you know? You certainly can’t write about what you don’t know and if you only know some of a topic, you can only write somewhat about it. That won’t make for a very good book.

Did you know that some libraries are networked? It’s true! If you’re a student or card holder at a SUNY college/university, you can access the libraries of all the other schools to find the material you need. Ask your librarian about this intralibrary loan service at your library. While you’re there, ask if they have a mail service and online catalog you can access from home.

To maintain your bibliography while you’re working, look into a number of services online that will help you to enter the information nearly automatically. If you can find a virtual listing of the book you’re working with, for example, on amazon, then you can usually click a link/button and it adds the listing to your bibliography. Working on several projects? You can organize your bibliography according to each project—in separate folders/lists. Here is a Wiki that lists some, which may or may not still be in service. I use Flow and love it.

Why do you need such a tool? Because, it often happens that you need to get that book back, because you need to go over something again. Or, you’re marketing your book to agents and editors–although you’d think an editor would not quibble over the format of a bibliography, they will. Agents and editors want to see that you’re a professional. A clean and well ordered bibliography is necessary. And, if you’re seeking an editor to work on your book, having them skip the appendix can save you some money, and they can skip it if you’ve been using a formatting software intended to do the work. Be sure you know proper citations, as well, if you intend to use end notes or footnotes (let’s visit this topic more in depth at another time).

Now that you have a library card and a bibliography manager, you’re all set to start building your resources. But what about visiting actual historic locations? Stick around, because I’ll be writing about them soon, too.

Please refer to the following works regarding research materials and research tools:

What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Caring For Your Writer

I am probably walking into a hornet’s nest of controversy bothering to write this out, especially as part of this series. The truth is, though, if you don’t care for yourself, and you don’t help those around you understand what you do and need to do to get your work done, your writing is going to suffer.

Another truth is, relationships are work! People don’t just come together and find instant and permanent bliss. A great deal of giving and taking is involved. What helps is knowing who and what you are, and helping those you care about, and who care about you, to better understand you as well. Each writer is different, so I can only write about the topic in general, or in a personal capacity. In a previous article from the blog, I wrote about how writing helps make human beings happier and healthier.

First of all, let’s agree that all relationships require and revolve around similar parameters: give and take balance, things in common, affection, and investment (to name a few). As an author, you must realize that your writing, though it is the world to you, will not be as important to anyone else in your life or the world. It is YOUR writing. And, this is okay. So what do you do when it feels like a friend or loved one doesn’t empathize enough with your need to write? You have to decide for yourself if you can help them to empathize better by teaching them how important it is to you, let it go, or deal with the consequences of distancing yourself. In the case of a romantic relationship, this could be a deal breaker, am I right? Take into account that, despite how often you hear about how someone wants to be a writer too, that the people in your life might be experiencing a writer for the very first time on such a close level.

Communication is key.

You’re going to have to use those excellent communication skills to make it clear what you need. Don’t be a diva about it either. Life isn’t just about you! Although you are the center of your writing world, the Earth will continue to revolve when you’ve passed on. Sorry to have to deflate your ego. It probably is offensive to you to hear this for a couple reasons: you think a great deal about yourself or your not that into you. Don’t be offended. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. You might not think that much about yourself, but take other for granted, insist they work around your schedule or not make enough time for them.

Self assessment is communication with the self. You’re going to need to learn to be honest with yourself. Take a long hard look at what you’ve been doing. If your family and friends are upset with you, there might be good reason.

Family members should also do the same on their end. Relationships are not just one sided. Ask them to be clear on their needs. If they have something they need you for, it’s only polite they ask and schedule the time with you, instead of just expecting you to be there because they happened to mention something about something a couple months ago. Clarity. You can’t be unclear and then have a clear expectation of another person.

A great tip about communication in any situation is understanding the What’s In It For Me? method. What do you need from the request? How can you cooperate with the other person and find out what they need? Is there a compromise that can be made? Then communicate that! For instance, your husband/wife needs you to mow the lawn, they’re busy doing cookies for the kid’s first grade class, and they have to be done today. The grass is almost knee high, you’ve been working on your book for weeks, every weekend and haven’t been helping to keep up chores. Your partner doesn’t do so good with the mower. How do you resolves the issue?

You’ve been working for weeks straight. A break is probably in order, huh? Do you have a deadline? If this is just a book, not an article or manuscript that is due in a couple days, put it aside. Go mow the lawn and enjoy the meditative repetition that can help you plan your next steps. You see? You’re still working AND you’re getting a chore done, so that your partner can focus on those cookies.

What if you have a deadline? Did you plan appropriately and the work has proved too overwhelming to manage in the time allotted? Or, did you just roughly put things together and now you’re rushing? Perhaps better planning next time? You’re still gonna have to take care of life and mow that lawn, kid.

What if everything fell apart over the last few months? Can you afford to hire someone to come do the lawn and order a cookie tray from a bake shop to help both of you? If money is tight, help your partner do the cookies, and then allow them to do the lawn regardless of how crappy they manage to do it and promise them something they want in exchange for later.

How’s your mood?

In the article I mentioned above, I confessed a bit about how I can get moody when interrupted. We all know that one guy at the office who gets huffy when you stop at his desk to ask him something. But, do we ever stop and ask ourselves, am I just barreling in with the expectation they’ll drop everything to help me, and maybe they have a deadline or a project that requires their full attention? Perhaps I do this too often, or the whole office does this to this person—too much! There is always a bigger reason than stopping at the desk to say hey. Please don’t assume they’re just a jerk, and then get all riled up—that’s just your ego being pissy. They’ve got things to do too!

In more intimate relationships this can get tricky because we feel more comfortable expressing our discontents. More likely, my switch is due to the time constraints I am constantly under: I can only write in the evenings and on weekends. It’s as exhausting as any other job, if not more so because it takes a lot of mental gymnastics. To be interrupted breaks my thought, which sets me back, possibly by hours. Those interrupting me, though I’ve explained this to them, continue to break in on my time. That can snap anyone’s mood, because it shows that regardless of what you’ve said, you’re not being listened to.

Disrupting a work flow, as we’ve learned about in the office, causes the same inefficiency, and when an author is limited to certain times in which to write, that is a real blow to their balance. My advice to friends, family or partners of authors: try to wait for your author to take a break. I am sure whatever question you have will wait. Write it down if you’re worried you’ll forget. At some point, they’ll take a break and you can speak with them then. If it’s an emergency, can you deal with this yourself? Is it that big of an emergency? If you don’t disrupt the author, will the house burn down? Is it really just a decision you can make on your own? Although your author might be working from home, that doesn’t mean you can disrupt their work day any more than you could if they were literally at a place of business working. You might text them at work, but it’s going to be some time before you hear back, as they aren’t sitting on their phone (in most cases) waiting for your text. Lastly, is the need to ask right now simply a call for attention? You might think you are just attempting to be polite and inclusive, when this is more about you than it is them or the collective you. When they take a break, great them with some attention—a hug or kiss and mention that you noticed how hard they’re working, so you didn’t disturb them, but you have a question before they get back in the writing cave. Some partners or family members might find it gratifying to have taken notice of the writers pattern regarding their break. Do they come out for a snack, coffee or smoke? You might have something ready, so they can spend more time answering your questions, giving you attention and taking care of whatever was on hold while they were busy. That’s a give take win.

If I’m gray or moody because I’m not writing, then those around me are going to feel that, especially partners. This is never more apparent when one half of the pair ignores the needs of the other. It only makes sense that while you feel good, your relationships will feel good too. I believe that a great deal of our mood is a choice. If we can actively be aware of how we may react in a situation, then we can choose to make the best decision for our response. That said, one can only do so much when being bombarded or taken for granted and their reasonable requests ignored.

Demanding Your Writing Be Set Aside to Please Others.

Writing is a very solitary act in most cases, and we writers have little call to be concerned about the feelings of others. Because of this, you can end up alienating your partner, family and friends by seeming to take writing as more important than any of them. And, so too, it may very well be—something that those who are connected to authors really must understand. That said, we cannot use writing as an excuse to be anti-social and then suffer no consequences. If you care about other people, then you’ll need to find time.

My advice for the family and friends: Don’t ever ask your author to choose you or their writing. A writer is incapable of not writing. You’re asking them to basically amputate a limb. A balance can and must be achieved, but it takes understanding on the part of those involved, and effort. According to the study above, and many others, partners of writers should be happy to allow their writer to write, because it reinforces the romantic bond. So, concern that writing is competing with you for attention of your writer seems quite moot, and perhaps there are other reasons writing is taking the blame? Emotional manipulation ends in misery, and I don’t advise those who want to control the relationship to make use of it. In fact, emotional manipulation is abuse.

Again, relationships are not one-sided. As mentioned above, writers eventually have to take a break. It’s mentally taxing to keep writing. Be patient. They will come up for air. Perhaps, while they’re busy, you can read a book you’ve been putting off, get some of your to-do list done. Use the time apart constructively, not contemplating how ignored you might be. That is the furthest thing from the truth. Writers might aggressively work for a few hours at a time, but then they break. The exhausting nature of the work requires time letting things rest. If you’re being ignored, what is your part in the problem? Are your schedules in conflict so that you can’t find time? Is there a better way to try and make time work? Are you trying to make them meet you more than half way? For instance, every evening your writer sits down to write for a while after dinner, and about two hours later, maybe more, they come out to grab a snack. You’re watching your favorite program and barely lift your head. An hour more and you’re in bed asleep. Maybe the solution is to watch a show after dinner together. Another solution, take a nap, so you can be awake longer that night to see them when they finish their work. Unlike me, I hear that a lot of authors only schedule a 1/2 hour to 1 hour of writing time per work day. You could spend time cleaning up after the meal, also.

Do you know how your writer takes a break? Do they want a snack/meal, drink, conversation, quiet time, or diversion? If you can’t answer that, that’s a serious problem! Start paying attention!

As for the writer, the simple fact is that you have life responsibilities and they’re not going to keep waiting. If you work full time, then you know the times outside of that schedule when you can work. Advice about writing daily is not viable in my book. Life doesn’t work that way. I don’t care. Once I sit down at my compute to work, I’m going to sit more than 10 or 15 minutes. I get lost in the work, and I must to produce the work I do. Writing is immersive. You’re zoned. So, knowing that, when is the best time to be able to completely zone? If you’re a night owl, and can afford the lack of sleep, why not save your workday week hours for after some quality time in the evening?

While those of you who think you have your schedule figured out, are you sure paying attention to your loved ones? You’re just as responsible for using your emotional intelligence to recognize when you’re attention is needed/wanted. It is not just up to others to call you out of your cave, or wait until you appear.

I know you want to get that work done, like now, but again, life happens. Take a deep breath. Let that deadline go if it’s imaginary. If it’s not, explain that you have a deadline and how this is going to impact them (impacting them is not telling them you’ll have a sad for days, that’s all about you–impacting them is telling them, I may lose my job, my boss/client is pressing, or work is expecting it. I can’t keep missing the deadline. How will we make it if I lose this job?)

Writing historical fiction takes time and perseverance, just don’t forget the rest of your life while you’re building your project. Hopefully these tips will help you achieve a better balance and understanding in your interpersonal relationships. It won’t erase those snaps here and there, but it will go a long way to making them infrequent on everyone’s account. Not everyone scenario can be answered in a blog post. So if you see your exception was missed, give a good honest go over with some of the tips for other scenarios. Considering consideration is the biggest step. And, not everyone will see themselves here. Also, nothing here is a dig at anyone out there. QTIP

Happy researching!

Have a topic you’d like discussed on writing historical fiction? Leave me a message and I will do my best to get to it.

What most writers forget is that they take for granted a great many aspects which can lend more credence to their works, as well as a better experience of the story they want to put forward to readers. Additionally, if you want to be considered historically accurate, you must behave as a historian–do you due diligence. Can it always be done? Some things might slip past you. No human is perfect. Try your best. This series is going to help by presenting articles of interest from around the internet and get you started on the research necessary to complete an amazing manuscript.

Google Tools: Google Scholar, Google Books

If you’ve gone to college in more recent years, then it is likely that you’ve been introduced to online research resources, especially if you are writing historical fiction, history, social sciences or hard science and math. Your professors will likely have reminded you that not all resources are created equal. Simply “googling” a topic doesn’t mean that the results are bringing you to a source that is trustworthy. How do you know? Know your source. Here’s a fun reminder:

A couple great resources that are at your disposal are the growing Google Scholar search engine, and the pretty extensive Google Books search. Both tools can be “googled” to get to the search engine, or you can click the links I’ve provided above and bookmark them for future use.

‘Google Books and Google Scholar are resources available to anyone, which bring books right into your lap. On Google Books, you can bring up a book and search it for your topic, before purchasing a copy and finding out that it has nothing of use to you inside. Additionally, that one page that does have something you need, you can view there, and save yourself some money. Google Scholar was created for research by students. It allows you to search for resources in the same Google format you’re familiar with, but limits the results to ‘scholarly’ articles. Now, before you start drooling, you have to put on your researcher hat and get to know what is a scholarly article, peer reviewed publication and all of that. Just because someone wrote for History Magazine doesn’t make them a scholar and doesn’t imply that they were reviewed by scholarly peers who can back up the findings or theory presented. Producing work that takes this for granted is fine in certain fiction, but you’ll never gain a reputation as a trustworthy author should you disregard the parameters of good research and present a work that is claimed to be factual.

These two websites can save you a lot of time slogging back and forth to libraries. For most, the nearest college is distant and often closed to them. Town libraries, except in major cities, don’t carry a lot of books that are scholarly level, and if they do, they’re likely out of date. A high school library will not suffice. So, make use of the sites! Then you can pick and choose the books you buy. You’re really going to want to own the ones that provide the most information, because you will need to refer to them throughout the process of your writing, which can take years, in some cases. Amazon (maybe Barnes and Noble, too) has a great book buy back program, which means you can steal a lot of these for a few dollars.’

Above, I mention libraries, and I will get to them in an upcoming installment. Another resource, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, is Wikipedia. Wiki isn’t a good resource on which to base your research for any texts. The problem is that the pages can be manicured by just about anyone. Usually that someone is someone with an agenda or someone with a form of bias. By bias, I mean that they have a certain level of knowledge that is based on the findings of certain research, which may or may not be vetted. How do you know where they’re getting the information from? Wikipedia provides a cite your sources section, and, if you click through, you’re likely to find some cites of which you can’t be all that certain. Some articles are fine. That said, like any encyclopaedia the information you find is limited and it’s merely a starting point. Wikipedia is good for giving you points to further research and a starting bibliography to peruse. Do not rely on it for anything else.

So, once you have some parameters to look into, you can wander on over to Google Scholar and Google Books to do a search. Your vetting isn’t done yet, though. First of all, Google Books contains a multitude of books and they’re aren’t regulated. Google Scholar is a little better, as the articles included in those searches are geared toward scholarly work. You’ll still need to check into your sources. You can do that by doing a standard google of the publisher and finding a little more about their history.

No one said that writing historical fiction was going to be easy, but it is rewarding. With experience, you’ll get to know more intuitively and by memory what is going to make your resources cut. If you care about your writing, then you’ll make the steps necessary to carry it to the next level.

Please refer to the following works regarding research materials and online research tools: